Nintendo makes jumping into play with the Switch ridiculously easy. Within the space of five minutes I was already poking my way through the eShop, and that was after a brief system update and logging into my Nintendo Account.

Turning on the Switch upon first startup sees you navigating a series of straightforward options that are really just “click to continue” options.

There’s the user agreement, the profile set-up, and connecting to a local internet network. Depending on how long you take to customise your profile icon, you could easily breeze through it within a minute (I obviously took a little bit longer choosing my profile icon).

Once you get all the normal setup processes out of the way, the Switch presents you with a sleek and simplified main menu.

Games installed or on a game card are shown on a singular grid line, with important icons lined along the bottom. There’s one for News, where Nintendo will update users on new announcements, the eShop, one for your saved screenshots, system settings, brightness, and sleep mode.

No doubt the Switch OS is going to get tweaked as the months and years roll on, but as of right now it’s fairly minimalistic, which I like.

It’s clean and modern and doesn’t bombard you with announcements, notifications and distractions; everything like that is nestled exactly where Nintendo wants it to be.

One major issue I have with the OS is the friends section, which doesn’t feel all that robust. While it’s nice I can see what my friends are playing or have played recently, the reliance on Friend Codes is painful. I want to be able to search by username, see recommended friends, not rely on boring codes no one can ever remember.

What are your thoughts on the Nintendo Switch OS? Sound off in the comments below!

Jayden Williams

Jayden wishes Pokémon were real. He often sits back dreaming of having his own Charizard while drinking whiskey: always on the rocks. Strongly opposed to hype trains, he will gladly jump aboard if it’s related to Nintendo or Mass Effect. But he won’t pre-order. Yuck.